Catch-and-release delayed hooking mortality estimates for riverine fishes, a meta-analysis and review dataset

This dataset contains a systematic compilation of catch-and-release mortality estimates for freshwater fishes in lotic (riverine) environments extracted from published studies spanning 1978-2022. We reviewed 74 lotic catch-and-release studies across six biogeographic realms, 30 freshwater ecoregions and eight major habitat types, and derived 76 quantitative mortality estimates from 50 of these studies for meta-analysis. For each study we recorded species, family (classified as coldwater or warmwater thermal guild), sample size, mortality rate, observation interval, study type (ex situ confinement, in situ confinement, or telemetry), gear type, hooking location, water temperature, handling time, air exposure duration, and other methodological variables. Observed catch-and-release mortality rates ranged from 0 to 73 percent with a mean of approximately 11 percent (standard deviation 15 percent). These data support a Bayesian zero-inflated beta regression meta-analysis examining how mortality varies with observation interval, study methodology and thermal guild. The release is organised as one main table holding a single row per mortality estimate, plus companion tables that hold the repeated study attributes (species, methods, tags, response variables, sample sizes and covariates) in long form, one row per value, joined on estimate_id. A companion field-based case study with Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis) in the lower Illinois River, Oklahoma, is described in the associated publication, but those case study data (net-pen confinement trials) are not included in this release because the small sample size and methodological failures (net-pen failure and tag loss) precluded quantitative analysis.